Polarimetric survey of asteroids with the Asiago telescope

¹ Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, Italy e-mail: fornasier@pd.astro.it
² Astronomical Institute of Kharkiv National University, Ukraine
³ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, Italy
⁴ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Italy

Received: 10 January 2006
Accepted: 24 March 2006

Abstract

Aims.We present the first results of an asteroid photo-polarimetry program started at Asiago-Cima Ekar Observatory. The aim of our survey is to estimate diversity in polarimetric properties of asteroids belonging to different taxonomic and dynamical classes.

Methods.The data were obtained with the polarization analyser placed inside the Faint Object Spectrographic Camera (AFOSC) of the 1.8 m telescope. This instrument allows simultaneous measurements of the two first Stokes parameters without any λ/2 retarding plate.

Results.Our survey began in 2002, and up to now we have obtained data on a sample of 36 asteroids; most of them are being investigated with the polarimetric technique for the first time. Combining our data with those already available in literature, we present an estimate of the inversion angle for 7 asteroids in this paper. Furthermore, we present the polarimetric measurements of the rare asteroid classes belonging to the A and D types and a detailed VRI observations at extremely small phase angles of the low albedo asteroid 1021 Flammario